Ted Rall has a column posted about how the federal laws do not protect your job with respect to any right to personal political speech. In other words, in most states, your employer can fire you for having a “Kerry/Edwards” or “Bush/Cheney” or “Weapons of Mass Deception”* bumpersticker on your vehicle in the company parking lot, or for writing a political blog in your off-hours away from work**.
Lynne Gobbell’s boss fired her from her job after she refused his demand that she remove the Kerry-Edwards bumpersticker from her car. “I would like to find another job, but I would take that job back because I need to work,” she told the Decatur paper. “It upset me and made me mad that he could put a letter in my check expressing his (political) opinion, but I can’t put something on my car expressing mine.” Coworkers confirm that the company attached a pro-Bush letter to paychecks.
He has that right under Tennessee law.
On the other side of the left-right divide, Playgirl magazine fired editor Michele Zipp after she wrote an article “admitting” that she was a Republican. “I wouldn’t have hired you if I knew you were a Republican,” Zipp quoted a Playgirl executive. As a New Yorker, she can sue for damages.
Only five states have any laws that protect off-hours political speech from workplace discrimination. In California or New York, for example, even threatening to fire an employee for being Repubican or Democrat is grounds for a lawsuit.
Extending national protection to outside-the-workplace political expression is something that even Democrats and Republicans in this highly partisan Congress ought to be able to agree upon. Neither party wants its supporters to lose their jobs. The obvious remedy is to add the protection of political speech to the list of activities and identifiers already covered under current federal labor laws: whistle blowing, race, color, national origin, religion, age, gender, etc. Only then will we truly be a nation that values and protects free speech.
Amen to that. Write a letter or make a phone call.
* Not-so-subtle SWAG-whoring alert!
** Yes, this is a political blog written during my work hours while I sit by the phone, Maytag-repairman-like, waiting for phone calls or computer trouble tickets to appear. I don’t expect protection for that.
